Gaara of the Desert
Gaara, renowned as Gaara of the Sand Waterfall (Sabaku no Gaara; English "Gaara of the Desert"), is a supporting character in Marios High School Days. Gaara was the third Jinchuriki of Shukaku: the One-Tail and is currently the Fifth Kazekage (Godaime Kazekage; Literally meaning "Fifth Wind Shadow") of the Hidden Sand Village (Sunagakure). Gaara is currently a student of Nintendo High and future heir to Kazekage Bank & Accounting. Birthdate: January 19 Gender: Male Age: 16 Height: 166.1 cm Weight: 50.9 kg Family: Fourth Kazekage (father) Karura (mother) Kankuro (brother) Temari (sister) Yashamaru (uncle) Background Gaara is the third and youngest child of the Fourth Kazekage and Karura, and the younger brother of Temari and Kankuro. Before Gaara's birth, his father had Chiyo seal Shukaku within him, in hopes that Gaara would become the ultimate weapon for Sunagakure as he was the only one of the Kazekage's three children to be compatible with the beast. He was born premature and therefore, was an unusually small and frail infant. Gaara was told his mother passed away shortly after giving birth to him. Gaara was trained in ninjutsu by his father, but mainly raised by his maternal uncle, Yashamaru. Because of the power of the Shukaku, the villagers of Sunagakure hated and feared Gaara. Seeing him only for the monster sealed within him, for a time, Yashamaru seemed to be the only person who cared about Gaara. When Gaara would unintentionally harm others due to the subconscious abilities granted to him by Shukaku, Yashamaru was the only one who understood that Gaara hadn't intended to harm anyone. The Sunagakure Council, however, saw Gaara's frequent attacks as a threat to the village. Because of the danger Gaara imposed, disappointed by the turn of events, the Kazekage decided to test his son by having Yashamaru attack Gaara both physically and psychologically to see if Gaara could retain control of Shukaku. As a result, on the Kazekage's orders, Yashamaru told Gaara that his mother never loved him. He also tried to assassinate Gaara, only to be severely wounded by the boy before Gaara realized whom he had hurt. Although Gaara tried to consider Yashamaru's attack as his father's order, Yashamaru lied to him saying that he had willingly accepted the mission to kill Gaara. He also lied that he never truly loved Gaara, and told him that killing him would avenge the death of his sister, who had named him Gaara after the phrase "a self-loving carnage" (Ware o aisuru shura), a sign of her intense hatred for Suna rather than love for her son. In the last ditch effort to kill Gaara, Yashamaru detonated a number of explosive tags covering his body, asking Gaara to "please die". Using his sand, Gaara survived the blast and believed he had lost the only person he thought had cared for him, while not knowing the true reasons behind Yashamaru's actions. Gaara then used his sand to etch the kanji for love ''(''ai) onto his forehead. Gaara then lost control and transformed into Shukaku, rampaging around the village before his father stopped him with Gold Dust. Since this incident, Gaara became and aloof and cruel person who would kill anyone to prove his existence and to obtain recognition from the village, all the while giving up any desire for friendship. Seeing that Gaara was unable to cope with the loss of his mother's love, the Kazekage deemed him a failure and arranged several assassinations of his son that all failed yet made Gaara hate his father even more. In time, Gaara's new ideology allowed better control over Shukaku, and his father would come to appreciate this and the uses he could serve, and cancelled all assassination orders. This revived the idea of having Gaara as the ultimate weapon of the village. Personality Gaara was once a kind child who, despite their fear and hatred towards him, tried desperately to be friendly towards others. His uncle, Yashamaru's, actions changed and twisted his personality. Misled into believing nobody loved him, Gaara used his sand to creat the kanji on his forehead "love" (ai), as a symbol of his ideal to be a "demon loving only itself", and to live up to the name his mother gave him. Gaara became emotionally withdrawn and silent, as he was consumed with a loathing towards everyone but himself and "Mother", the voice of Shukaku in his head. He learned to derive pleasure and a reason to live in the annihilation of the numerous assassins sent to kill him -- and by extension, anyone who posed a threat to his own existence. This was worsened by Shukaku's occasional demand for blood to satisfy its blood lust, resulting in Gaara's remorseless nature, demonstrated when he murdered Baiu and Midare, dispite their pleas for mercy. Gaara's insomnia forced fear upon him; if he were to fall asleep, the demon within him would begin to eat away at his soul. This only furthered his instability and desire to kill. Gaara's hatred for his own father is due to the multiple assassination attempts, but his misanthropic nature even extended to his siblings, whom he never saw as related to him, despite them never offending him directly. He was fully willing to kill them if he viewed that the situation called for it. In addition, due to the sand activating at any time injury would otherwise befall Gaara, he never saw his own blood until Sasuke Uchiha pierced his shield and injured him, thus causing Gaar to have a mental breakdown. Gaara's childhood was similar to Naruto Uzumaki's in many ways. Both were unbearably lonely and longed to be liked, loved and acknowledged as individuals, free of he prejudices of others -- they were human beings, not the demons they had been forced to contain -- and were driven to separate states of desperation. While Naruto consequently developed the misconception that pranks and mischief would bring him the attention he sought, Gaara came to the conclusion that he could preserve and comfirm his own existence by killing any and all who challenged it, securing this extreme form of existentialism as his key trait. In the absence of outside recognition, he could compensate by valuing only himself to the exclusion of every other person. Furthermore, while Naruto eventually had Iruka Umino and Team Kakashi to comfort him, Gaara never bonded with anyone, not even his fahter or siblings, as they too despised and feared Shukaku. The person who grew the closest to acknowledging Gaara was his mother's brother Yashamaru. Yashamaru was ordered to betray Gaara and kept the ruse up even as he was recooperating in the hospital, transforming him into a lonely sociopath. As such, Gaara couldn't understand the concept of fighting for anything but himself until his confrontation with Naruto. After his defeat at Naruto's hands, Gaara was shocked to discover that Naruto understood very well the pain he had endured throughout his life. He was even more surprised to learn that Naruto never lost his ambition to be recognized as an individual, and ultimately found companions who truly cared for him. Witnessing the resolution Naruto possessed to protect his friends made Gaara finally question the path he had determined for himself. Realising that he gave up too easily, Gaara decided to follow Naruto's chosen path instead in order to finally have people acknowledge him as an individual, and not the tailed-beast within him. Over the next few years, Gaara's resolve to find happiness caused him to rely on his own power rather than that of Shukaku. Gaara eventually formed a close friendship with Naruto, and became rather protective of him. Returning to Yashamaru's bedside, Gaara resolved to accept Yashamaru's rejection only to find an emotionally broken Yashamaru. Yashamaru admitted to lying to Gaara and begged for forgiveness. With the person who he trusted most restored, Gaara absolved to protect those closest to him. Since becoming one of Naruto's companions, Gaara has somehow taken on his ability to alter people's personalities. In the anime, he convinced Matsuri to overcome her fear of weapons. During the Kage Summit, he shocked the older, more experienced Kage by asking them when they had forsaken themselves, later causing Onoki to become much more determined to protect the Shinobi World. He even managed to make Naruto think about the choices he had made in regards to Sasuke, stating that he only cared about revenge. His bond with Naruto has also made him capable of tossing aside any grudge, including his previous hatred of his father, who was partly responsible for Gaara's miserable childhood. He admits to having forgiven his father's actions, but openly weeps after learning that his mother truly did love him, and that she had vowed to protect him forever by infusing her will into his sand which, as his father noted, would always protect him. Gaara cares deeply for Naruto and his well-being, and despite Sasuke's actions during his assault at the Kage Summit and his status as an international criminal, went so far as to attempt to convince Sasuke to come out of the darkness one more time on behalf of Naruto, and when unconvinced, even shed a tear for the failure Sasuke has become, and the disappointment Naruto will face. Despite respecting Naruto's goals, his care for him does not block his personal beliefs, and he believes his friend's well-being is more important, most prominent is his support to keep Naruto out of the war saying to Tsunade that Naruto takes too many risks when it comes to protecting his friends. Gaara also bluntly tells Naruto that chasing after Sasuke is foolish, as he sees him as no longer being able to return from the path of corruption. Though he defies Naruto's goal to bring Sasuke back, he only says this is for Naruto's well-being because they are "friends". Although he remained ruthless against his opponents, Gaara is extremely protective of his allies and innocent people, as seen when he protected his village from Deidara; and his siblings, Darui and even the Raikage against Sasuke. He also deeply understands those who have suffered from loneliness and hatred in the past by the look in their eyes, such as Naruto, Kimimaro, and even Sasuke. Appearance Gaara is a little shorter than average males of his age, which is due to the fact that he was born prematurely. He has fair skin and short, spiky, auburn hair which was sometimes depicted as red. He has turquoise eyes, predominantly blue. Gaara has no distinctive pupils, or eyebrows either. He has two very notable traits in his appearance: firstly, he has tanuki-like black eye rings, having them since his birth. Secondly, he carved the kanji "love" (ai) on the left side of his forehead, having it since Yashamaru's betrayal. Gaara's forelocks are parted from the left side, making the kanji more visible. Matsuri and Sari who both seem to have a crush on Gaara, have described him as the strong, silent type, elite and very handsome. When he was 12-13 years old, Gaara has been seen in two different outfits. When he was seen for the first time, he wore black full body suit with a t-shirt-like sleeves, 3/4-length legs, and an open neck. With this, he wore a white cloth over his right shoulder and the left side of his hips, and a wide leather band, he carried around his gourd that contains his sand. He also wrapped his black forehead protector over the band. In his childhood flashbacks, he was seen wearing a beige poncho-like shawl over a short-sleeved black t-shirt, a white obi around his waist, dark blue pants that were rolled back several times at the hem, revealing the inside cloth to be gray, and black sandals. He switched his previous black overalls to a reddish-brown one with longer sleeves and an upright collar. He retained the white cloth, but had mesh armor on his wrists and ankles. At age 16, Gaara had a considerable growth spurt, he wore full-length dark trousers with a pair of laces on each leg, respectively a few inches below the waist and the knees, a long-sleeved crimson coat with flaring hemlines on the front and the back, a grey holster vest held in place by a single strap over his left shoulder and by two buckled belts which he uses to carry his gourd. He also wears another pair of casually worn belts around his waist. he is also see wearing Kazekage robes, and a simple black pants suit, the latter one greatly resembling Kankuro's suit, and worn for the memorial of Elder Chiyo. All the time, he has been seen wearing Sunagakure's standard shinobi sandals. Abilities Gaara is an extremely powerful shinobi, so much that he was made Kazekage at the age of 15. His powers and status have now become well-respected and praised by everyone, including the other Kage, both current and previous ones with the Second Mizukage going as far as to call him the "golden egg amongst the Kage", and his father who acknowledged that he had surpassed him in more ways than he could have hoped for. Even though he had lost the tailed beast Shukaku, he was still powerful enough to remain Kazekage. Another testament to Gaara's power at his young age is that he could hold his own against five of Madara Uchiha's wood clones, which were all clad in complete Susano'o, for a long period of time. Gaara's fighting style is a stationary type, as he rarely needs to move his entire body to attack an opponent. Sand Control As the host of Shukaku, Gaara possesses the ability to manipulate sand, typically moving it through the air to serve various purposes. Being a jinchuriki, Gaara has a large amount of stamina and huge levels of chakra as noted by Kiba and thus is able to use many chakra-taxing sand-based techniques, sometimes in quick succession, before becoming exhausted. The amount of sand he can control at one time is immense: he could use a massive amount of sand to fully transform into Shukaku, as well as creat a tsunami of sand to fight Kimimaro. He is able to gather enough sand to shield the entire village of Sunagakure as well as assist in stopping a giant meteorite. If sand is lacking in abundance, Gaara can break down the earth minerals in the ground to create more sand. While he can control any dry sand, ordinary sand requires more chakra to manipulate, tiring him at a rapid rate. As a result, Gaara keeps his own chakra-infused sand with him at all times, in a balabash gourd also made out of sand on his back. Because this sand is already infused with his chakra, Gaara has a great deal more control over it, enabling stronger and faster attacks with it. During battle, Gara rarely moves, attacking with his sand from a single location, and rarely uses taijutsu. The "catch and crush" tactic remains at the centre of his fighting style. As the second element of his combat style, Gara has a number of sand-based defences to be used in case an opponent gets too close. His primary defence is his Shield of Sand, an automatic sand shield that surrounds and protects him from damage whether he wants it to or not. Gaara can control the shield to some degree, strengthening it to steel-like quality or calling upon it to completely encase himself. While an effective defense, the shield can be overcome with high-speed attacks, or simply be broken through with incredibly forceful strikes. Should this happen, Gaara has a layer of sand covering his body called the Armor of Sand. Although it's a useful secondary defence, the armor requires large amounts of chakra to remain active, and also has the side-effect of weighting Gaara down. Despite this, the defences offered by his sand are so powerful, they have been named the "Absolute Defence" (Zettai Bogyo). Furthermore, Gaara can crush the hardest minerals in the ground together to create a shield in the shape of Shukaku's body or a spear in the shape of its arm for combat. In addition to these basic methods of offence and defence, Gaara also has a number of miscellaneous techniques that, while capable of being used as attacks or defence of sorts, are not limited to such purposes. By making a sand clone of himself, Gaara can have an ally to be used in battle, or as a mere distraction to be used to buy him time. Unlike most other clone techniques in the series, the Sand Clone can retain its shape after more than one attack, and can even reform itself or capture an opponent upon being dispersed. With Desert Suspension, Gaara can use sand as a platform, to allow himself and others to float in the air. His Third Eye also allows him to create a floating eyeball of sand in any location. He also claimed that he can ride his sand to reach the Island Turtle, and would have been faster than if Onoki went there. His sand can also be used as a sensing device: Gaara can detect when others come into contact with it, even from far away. Despite the removal of Shukaku, Gaara can still use his sand like before. According to Sasuke at the Kage Summit, Gaara's Absolute Defence is still alive and well. Not only that, but the sand has also massively improved in speed and defence, and offence since the last time they met as it was not only able to protect him and others from a cave-in, but also block Ay, block Amaterasu several times without being burned through or into -- a feat that impressed Sasuke Uchiha, as well as block Madara Uchiha's complete Susano'o's sword and still protect him even when it was barraged by four others right afterwards. During a fight with his father, Gaara's sand powers were so strong that his father believed he had fully transformed into Shukaku and was later surprised to see that was not the case. Gaara was able to quickly manoeuvre his sand above his father's Gold Dust, despite its superior weight. Gaara is able to manipulate the sand even when it's saturated with water. He can even block powerful explosions the instant they explode despite the enormous power these techniques held, protecting his village and the division respectively. He was able to integrate gold dust, a feat previously only usable by his father, into his sand so that he can use the former - noting that gold was approximately twenty times heavier than water- in order to counter the Steaming Danger Tyranny clone. Other Skills Though he almost never uses taijutsu as a fighting element, Gaara has displayed incredible reaction speed against regular users of taijutsu as he was able to instantly react at a moments notice to Rock Lee closing his eyes and completely escape from his high-level taijutsu attacks while having enough precision to position himself directly behind Lee. Gaara has also shown some measure of physical strength, even without transforming into Shukaku as he was able to easily repel Tamri with a single punch, despite being wounded. Gaara showed to be strong enough to pick himself up, without aid, after having his Armor of Sand soaked through with water, which had made it as heavy as land. He has also shwon to be a skilled teacher, teaching Matsuri how to use the johyo when he learned she was afraid of weapons. Gaara has also shown to be highly analytical and a very skilled tactician. Like many Suna shinobi, Gaara is skilled with the Sealing Tag, using his sand in place of cloth. Trivia *Gaara's hobby is battling and cultivating cactt. *Gaara's favorite foods are salted tongue and gizzard, while his least favorite are yokan and marron glace. *Gaara and Naruto are both the same weight and height. *Gaara wishes to fight Sasuke Uchiha and anyone, if it is for the sake of his village. *Gaara has completed 34 official missions in total: 0 D-rank, 9 C-rank, 8 B-rank, 14 A-rank, 3 S-rank. *Gaara's favorite words are, "love for oneself" (jiai) and "affection" (jiai) and "future" (mirai).